It began its life as part of an arch, shaped with a broad chamfered arris, meaning its edge was cut away at an angle to produce a sloping, bevelled profile typical of dressed stonework in medieval and early post-medieval building. At some point that arch was dismantled, or simply fell, and rather than being discarded or robbed out for new construction, this section of it was stood upright among the graves south of the church and put to work as a grave-marker.

The reuse of architectural fragments as grave-markers is not unusual in Irish ecclesiastical sites, where good worked stone was too valuable to leave lying idle, and where the boundary between building material and burial monument was often more practical than ceremonial. What makes the An Gróbh fragment worth attention is the detail it preserves. The chamfered arris tells us something about the quality and ambition of whatever structure it once belonged to, even if that original building is long gone and no record of it survives. The fragment was recorded by J. Cuppage and colleagues in the Archaeological Survey of the Dingle Peninsula, published by Oidhreacht Chorca Duibhne in 1986, which remains a foundational document for understanding the archaeology of this part of Kerry.